Bank capital: too much of a good thing?

摘要

The regulatory onslaught shows no sign of abating. I thought it was just me that was getting fatigued by the quest to keep up to date, but I had lunch on Friday with a debt capital markets head who told me just trying to keep tabs on everything was exhausting and nigh-on impossible. That made me feel a lot better. Among other things, this past week we saw the European Court of Justice reject - on a technicality - the UK government's legal challenge to the wacky financial transactions tax supported by 11 European Union member countries. We also saw the rather draconian adverse scenario laid out for the stress tests on 124 EU banks, the Bank of England saying it would impose additional stress, and the Dutch central bank giving notice of super-stringent capital ratios for its four systemic banks. The list goes on ...